An everyday tale of family and political life with a dollop of Formula One and various random thoughts on the side.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

1983 election on BBC Parliament tomorrow

BBC Parliament is continuing its bank holiday tradition of giving political geeks the chance to relive elections of their lives.

Tomorrow they are broadcasting the 1983 election results. I know Mrs Thatcher being re-elected with a stonking majority is not something we want to dwell on. Nor is the fact that the Alliance came within a whisker of knocking Labour into 3rd place in terms of the popular vote and ended up with just 23 MPs.

It was my first election, though, in the same way that Tom Baker is my Doctor. It was the first time I'd delivered leaflets, canvassed, did a detention for doing same during school hours, and enjoyedvictory in Caithness and Sutherland.

I shall definitely be watching - particularly on the Friday morning segment where we'll see the Highlands seats declare - including Charles Kennedy's election at just 23. Jim Wallace and Malcolm Bruce also entered Parliament then.